Lemonade Punch
by weebee
Summary: Ranma has to do something he'll regret.


Lemonade Punch.

Disclaimer: This fic has heavy citrus content, and is the first of my fics to do so. Just warning you all, you may not want to read it.

Story Start.

Ranma stood before the door, his breath coming in short, sharp gasps as his heart pounded at twice its usual rate. Looking down at his hand, he noted the single beaten up plastic wrapped packet that sat there, and frowned at it. He was going in there, and all he had with him was the slender plastic wrapped thing, and, of course, himself.

Somehow, though, he thought that his efforts wouldn't be enough. He wasn't scared, of course he wasn't. He was Ranma Saotome, after all, the most powerful martial artist in Nerima, and a Man among Men. Or, at least, that was what he hoped his mother thought, or he would end up with his innards spread across the Dojo's floor.

His mother, it was she who had put him in this situation. She'd ordered him to do it, in order to demonstrate his manliness. "It is one of the duties a husband should perform," she had lectured him. He would have done it without her having asked, she didn't have to finger that damned Katana of hers, but he hadn't realized that there was a need. After all, he was normally far too busy sparring, or occasionally fighting for his life, to notice the subtle signs. This was why Akane would often call him an insensitive jerk, but then, he certainly wouldn't do this sort of thing for her! He wanted to stay alive, after all, Not that she'd let him live if he did it for anyone else, either.

But no, his mother had asked him to do this thing, and there was the girl to consider, too. He never wanted to disappoint her. Disappointing her was something that filled him with disgust over his abilities as a fighter, and as a man.

For a moment he wondered if this would be easier to do as a girl. The first time he'd had to do it, he'd been female, after all. Things always went a lot more smoothly when he was in his cursed form, as for some reason the usual suspects didn't get as mad at him when he spent a lot of time with her that way. Shaking his head, he smacked himself in the side of the face. "Be a man, Saotome!" He growled.

This turned out to be a mistake, as his exclamation was apparently heard by someone. "Ranma-Kun, is that you?" a sweet, smooth voice drifted from behind the door, and the pigtailed martial artist opened it slowly to see a vision of beauty, even though her face was slick with sweat, and her cheeks were flushed red.

"Um, K… K… Kasumi," he stammered, walking into the room slowly. That was when the strong, yet not unpleasant scent hit him, and he couldn't help but feel enticed. "I, um…" He didn't know why he was so damned nervous! He had done this before, many times!

With a life as hectic as his own, it was inevitable that it would happen. Ukyo, Shampoo, Akane, hell, even the Kunos had taken part at different times, and with him in different forms, of course, sometimes with both forms within an hour.

"Ranma-Kun, you look flushed," Kasumi said, stepping towards the slightly younger boy and paying no mind to the viscous fluid that dripped from the fingers of one hand. Ranma blushed and looked down, especially as he noted that she was looking down towards his midsection with… was that disappointment?

Abruptly, he growled. He would not disappoint her! Raising his hand from his side, he held up the plastic packet. "Um, sorry Kasumi, but there was this big fight, and Ryoga crushed the bag of lemons. I did get the spices you wanted, though, and I can go back for them!" He said, quickly.

"Don't worry, Ranma-kun," the eldest Tendo said, smiling sunnily and wiping her hand clean of egg on her apron before taking the spice packet from his hands. "That was all I really needed, the lemons were for tomorrow's lunch."

"Oh, uh, that's good. I'll still go and get 'em for ya, though," the pigtailed martial artist said, turning and walking out of the Tendo kitchen, sliding the paper screen door closed to try and keep some of the heat from the cooking food from augmenting the already almost intolerable August weather. Waving to the two fathers, he ran through the living room, out the porch doors, and jumped over the wall to the street. He would get those lemons back this time.

END.

Yeah, I know, it's probably been done before, but then, little fics like this are rarely seen after their first publication, and my own spin isn't really a bad thing, right?

Please R&R!


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